Electric clock



2 Sheets-Sheet l W. E. PORTER ELECTRIC CLOCK Filed April 23, 1927 Sept. 1, 1931.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 W. E. PORTER Sept. 1, 1931.

ELECTRIC CLOCK Filed April 23, 1927 Patented Sept. 1, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WILSON E. PORTER, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE NEW HAVEN CLOCK 00., OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT A CORPORATION ELECTRIC CLOCK Application filed April 23,

My invention relates to an improved elec tric clock, the object being to produce an instrument constructed with particular reference to simplicity of parts, compactness of organization, reliability of performance, and

durability in use.

With these ends in view, my invention consists in an electric clock having certain details of construction and combinations of parts as will be hereinafter described and pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a view in rear elevation of the electric elements of an electric clock embodying my invention, the parts being shown in the positions due to them at the instant the circuit is closed through the coils of the electro-magnet Fig. 2 is an edge view thereof;

Fig. 3 is a View corresponding to Fig. 1, save that the magnet has been removed and that the parts are in the positions due to them at the instant of breaking the circuit through the coils of the electro-magnet;

Fig. 4 is a detached perspective view of the bell-crank spring-shifting lever; and

Fig. 5 is a similar view of the two-armed spring-actuated lever.

In the embodiment of my invention here 3 in shown, my improved electric clock is provided with an electro-magnet comprising a pair of coils 10 and a core 11 terminating in pole-pieces 12 and 13 and mounted in spaced relation to the clock- 35 movement by three pillars 14 projecting rearward from the rear movement-plate 15 thereof and entered at their rear ends by screws 16 passing from rear to front through parts of the said core 11. The said electro- 40 magnet serves to operate a pivotal armature 17 secured at one end to a rock-shaft 18 journaled in the said rear movement-plate 15 and in abridge 19 attached by screws 20 to the outer ends of two pillars 21 projecting 45 rearwardly from the said plate. The front movement-plate 22 is organized with the rear movement-plate 15 in the usual manner by pillars 23 extending between them and spacing them apart.

50 The rock-shaft 18carries near its forward 1927. Serial No. 185,957.

end an operating-lever 24 having a tramdriving arm 25 and a switch-actuating arm 26 and participating in all of the rocking movement of the armature 17. The outer end of the said train-driving arm 25 carries a stud 27 mounting a pawl 27 and also a stud 28 mounting the pawl-spring 29. The said pawl co-acts with the teeth of a ratchetwheel 30, a portion of which projects beyond the cut-away edge 31 of the rear movement-plate 15. The said wheel is mounted upon the main-wheel arbor 32, which also mounts the main-wheel 33 of the clock-train. The ultimate power for driving the mainwheel 33 and hence the time-train (not shown) of the clock is supplied by means of a helical spring 34, one end of which is attached to a stud 35 in an adjustable tension,- ing-arm 36 secured to the plate 15 by a rivet 37 on which the said arm may be swung as required to properly tension the spring. The opposite end of the said spring 34 is secured to a rearwardly-projecting stud 38 in the operating-lever 24.

The fork-like outer end of the switchactuating arm 26 of the lever 24 is formed with a relatively-wide U-shaped notch 39 for the reception of a pin 40 projecting rearwardly through a clearance-slot 41 in the rear movement-plate 15 from the arm 42 of a bell-crank spring-shifting lever 43 mounted upon a rock-shaft 44 journaled between the front and rear movement-plates 22 and 15, the complementary arm 45 of the said lever being furnished with a stud 46 and with a clearance-slot 47. The said U-shaped notch 39 is made relatively wider than the diameter of the pin 40 fora purpose to be hereinafter explained. The said stud 46 provides for the attachment of one end of the switch-actuating spring 48, the opposite end of which is secured to a stud 49 in the bowed extension 50 of the arm 51 of a twoarmed switch-actuating lever 52 secured to a rock-shaft 53 journaled between the two movement-plates 15 and 22, so as to occupy a plane parallel with and slightly in front of the plane of the bell-crank lever 43 aforesaid, one of these levers overlapping or extending beyond the other, as shown. The

rear end of the rock-shaft 53 passes through the clearance-slot 47 in the said lever 43. The switch-actuating lever 52 also includes an arm 54 complementary to the arm 51 thereof and diverging with respect thereto,

the arm 54 carrying a driving-pin 55 and the arm 51 a corresponding driving-pin 56, these arms having inclined flat faces of different inclination (Fig. The inclined flat faces of the respective driving-pins 55 and 56 alternately co-act with the cam-like outer edges of the arms of star-wheel 5'? carried by a shaft 58 located between and journaled in the movement-plates 15 and 22. The said shaft 58 also mounts two corresponding rotary contact-heels 59 spaced apart by an insulating fiber guard-disk 66 slightly smaller in diameter than the said wheels which, as shown, are formed with six equally-spaced contact-lugs 61 separated by clearance-spaces 62. The contact-lugs 61 of the respective contact-heels 59 are concurrently engaged by the complementary yielding fingers 63 of a contact-arm 64 secured to a fiber-block 65 applied to the rear face of the front movement-plate 22. The said fiber guard-disk 60 interposed between the contact-wheels 59 prevents the inwardly-turned ends of the contact-fingers 63 from engaging with the bottom walls of the clearance-spaces 62 between the contact-lugs 61. The said contact-arm 64 has soldered to it the outer end of a terminal-wire 66 of the coils 10 of the electro-magnet, these coils being connected together by a conductor 67 The other terminal of the coils is formed by a wire 68.

In explaining the operation of my improved clock, reference may first be had to Figs. 1 and 2, which represent the parts of the clock in the positions due to them after the energy of the helical driving-spring 34 has substantially expended itself in driving the clock-train, with the result that the circuit has been closed through the coils 10 of the electro-magnet, which is thus energized with the effect of instantly causing the pole-pieces 12 and 13 thereof to attract the armature 17, whereby the operating-lever 24 is swung from left to right, the spring 34 placed under greater tension and the pawl 27 moved backward over a single tooth of the ratchet-wheel 30. The described movement of the operating-lever 24 from left. to right causes the switch-actuating arm 26 thereof to act through the pin 40 of the bell-crank lever 43 to rock the same from right to left or anticlockwise, whereby the stud 46 is moved to the left-hand side of a line intersecting the centers of the rook-shafts 44 and 53, causing the tension of the switch-actuating spring 48 to be exerted in a direction which will smartly snap the two-armed switch-actuating lever 52 from right to left or clockwise. Thereupon, the flat face of the driving-pin 56 strikes the cam-like outer edge of one of the teeth of the star-wheel 57, which is thus given acne-twelfth turn, whereby the correspondingly-positioned clearance-spaces 62 of the contact-wheels 59 are brought into registration with the inwardly-turned ends of the contact-fingers 63 of the contact-spring 64, thus breaking the circuit through the magnet-coils 10 and de-energizing the core 11 of the magnet. The parts now occupy the positions shown in Fig. 3.

Having broken the circuit and so released the pull of the pole-pieces 12 and 13 upon the armature 17, as above described, the helical spring 34 now asserts itself to pull the operating-lever 24 from right to left, causing the pawl 27 to drive the ratchet-wheel 30, which slowly yields under the control of the escapement (not shown) of the timetrain. During the described slow movement of the lever 24 from right to left, its switch-actuating arm 26 will slowly rock the bell-crank lever 43 clockwise, until the stud 46 carried thereby has moved to the right of a line drawn between the centers of the rock-shafts 44 and 53, whereby the direction of pull of the switch-actuating spring 48 is such that its tension is exerted in snapping the switch-actuating lever 52 from left to right, whereby the flat face of the driving-pin 55 thereof is smartly engaged with the cam-like outer edge of the tooth adjacent to it of the star-wheel 57, which is thus smartly rotated one-twelfth of a turn with the effect of bringing a complementary pair of the contact-lugs 61 of the contact-wheels 59 into engagement with the inwardly-turned outer ends of the contactfingers 63 of the contact-spring 64, resulting in the instantaneous closing of the circuit through the coils 10 of the electro-magnet. The several parts described will now have the positions in which they are shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

It is to be noted that on account of making the U-shaped notch 39 in the arm 26 of the lever 24 relatively wider than the diameter of the pin 40, the bell-crank lever 43 will not be restrained by the armature from snapping in one direction or the other when the switch-actuating spring 48 is shifted to the opposite side of a line drawn between the centers of the rock-shafts 44 and 53.

It will be seen that the interval of time between the making and breaking of the circuit is almost infinitesimal, while, on the other hand, the interval of time between the breaking and making of the circuit is measured by the length of time required by the driving-spring 34 to move the main-wheel 33 througha distance represented substantially by the distance between the respective teeth. of the ratchet-wheel 30.

For the sake'of convenience and clarity, the time-train of the clock has not been shown other than by the main-wheel 33 and the first pinion 69 into which it meshes. The

time-train may, of course, be of any approved construction and arrangement.

I claim:

1. In a contact-operating mechanism for electric clocks of the type in which an armature is moved in one direction by a drivingspring and in the opposite direction by an electromagnet, the combination with a rotary contact-member having a plurality of segregated contact-points, of a yielding contact-member co-acting therewith, two rocking-members for imparting step-by-step rotary impulses to the said rotary contactmember, one of the said rocking-members having a pair of arms, a spring connecting the said rocking-members and movable by one of them from one side to the other of their dead-center to efiect the step-by-step movement of the said rotary contact-memher, and loose coupling-means between one of the said rocking-members and the arma ture of the clock, whereby the said rockingmembers may be snapped by the said spring when it passes their dead-center without constraint by the said armature.

2. In a contact-operating mechanism for electric clocks of the type in which an armature is moved in one direction by a drivingspring and in the opposite direction by an electro-magnet, the combination with two complementary contacts, one of which is movable with respect to the other, of a pair of rocking-levers located one in front of the other in parallel planes and overlapping each other, a spring connecting the said rockinglevers andmovable by one of them from one side to the other of their dead-center to effect the movement of the said movable contact-- member, and loose coupling-means between one of the said rocking-levers and the armature of the clock, whereby the said rockinglevers may be snapped by the said spring when it passes their dead center without constraint by the said armature.

3. In a contact-operating mechanism for electric clocks of the type in which an armature is moved in one direction by a drivingspring and in the opposite direction by an electro-magnet, the combination with a rotary contact-member having a plurality of segregated contact-points, of a yielding contact-member co-acting therewith, a star-wheel connected with the said rotary c0ntact-memher, two rocking-members, one of which is provided with a pair of arms adapted to alternately engage the arms of the said star-wheel on opposite sides of the pivot thereof, a spring connecting the said rocking-members and movable by one of them from one side to the other of their dead-center to effect the stepby step movement of the said rotary contactmember, and loose coupling-means between one of the said rocking-members and the armature of the clock, whereby the said rocking-members may be snapped by the said spring when the said spring passes their deadcenter without constraint by the said armature.

4. In a contact-operating mechanism for electric clocks of the type in which an armature is moved in one direction by a drivingspring and in the opposite direction by an electro-magnet, the combination with a rotary contact-member having a plurality of segregated contact-points, of a yielding contactmember co-acting therewith, a star-wheel connected with the said rotary contact-memher, two rocking-members, one of which is ex tended to the opposite side of the star-wheel from its pivot, a spring connecting the extended portion of the said member to the complementary rocking-member and movable by one of the said members from one side to the other of their dead-center to effect the ste a-by-step movement of the said rotary contact-member, and loose coupling-means between one of the said rocking-members and the armature of the clock, whereby the said rocking-members may be snapped by the said spring when the same passes their dead-center without constraint by the said armature.

In testimony whereof, I have signed this specification.

IVILSON E. PORTER. 

